Then after the game, after the Warriors took a 120-108 whipping Saturday from the host Blazers in Game 3, Green took to the podium and dropped more bombs.

“That team, they had doubt,” he said of Portland.

“I was awful on defense.”

‘”We’ll be better. I’ll be better. We will win.”

On the surface, these verbal grenades seemed aimed at the Blazers. He all but called them scared to start the game. His harsh, and accurate, critique of his defense was an explanation for (and backdoor jab at) Al-Farouq Aminu’s 23 points. And his prediction the Warriors will win, whether he meant Game 4 on Monday or the series, was the kind of arrogance some take as disrespect.

But I will let you in on a little secret: Green’s comments were aimed at his own locker room.

Those barbs were calculated. This was a strategic attempt by the “heart of the team,” as coach Steve Kerr calls Green, to get the blood boiling in his teammates. Before Game 3, the message from Green was to keep their comments PC. The Warriors had taken a 2-0 series lead, winning Game 2 after taking the Blazers’ best shot. He didn’t want the Warriors giving Portland any bulletin board material, give the underdogs any extra will to dig themselves out of the hole.

Instead, it had an adverse effect. It wasn’t any quotes that gave Portland hope, but the Warriors’ politically correct vibe. Not wanting to punch first left them too passive to counterpunch. And when the Blazers came out swinging, the Warriors couldn’t match it.

“I don’t think we played with enough urgency … they were desperate,” Green explained. “I could tell they had doubt and we didn’t take advantage of it. And that’s on me.”

They gave up 120 points, the most they’ve allowed in this postseason — by 14 points. The Blazers shot 54.8 percent in the second half, looking as confident as ever against the Warriors’ defense.

No player epitomized Portland’s comfort more than Damian Lillard. His 40 points were the most he’s ever scored in a playoff game. He was the first Blazer since Clyde Drexler in 2006 to get 40 and 10 assists in a playoff game.

He put the Warriors away for good with two step-back 3s as if he was messing around in a game of pickup at the neighborhood gym.

“They made some tough shots,” Kerr said. “We know they’re going too make tough shots. I just didn’t feel like we played with the desperation that’s necessary. … We got outworked.”

Why was that on Green? In part because he was “horrendous” defensively. He overleapt in the paint, leaving Aminu open. After Aminu made a couple, Green charged out hard to contest the shot and Aminu was able to drive by him. Green just couldn’t catch up on that end. You don’t see him get beat like that.

This game was lost upstairs. Their emotional leader didn’t do his part to mentally prepare his troops.

Without Curry, and against these Blazers, the Warriors don’t have the luxury of coasting. They can’t afford to lose their edge. And they will need it in Game 4 to keep from elongating this series.

The Warriors may not get Curry back on Monday. He was trying to ramp up his activity Saturday, playing 2-on-2 at the Moda Center hours before the game, his first basketball action since spraining his right MCL. Curry will play 3-on-3 at practice on Sunday, but Kerr wants him to get a full, 5-on-5 practice in before throwing his star out there.

If that’s the case, the Warriors won’t have the MVP to lean on when times get rough. It will have to be engaged defense, lively ball movement on offense, and high levels of energy. The Warriors will have to be locked in to extinguish the spark Lillard started Saturday.

To that end, Green lobbed verbal fireballs. He gave the bulletin board material. Why?

It probably was to put himself out there so his teammates would have to turn it up a notch and back him up.

Maybe to encourage Portland to ramp up the trash talk even more, which might then light a fire in his teammates.

Perhaps it was because banter sparks something in himself, and he can then spread the contagion in his locker room.